AP Photo/Libkos
- Part of Ukraine's fightback against Russia includes using fake weapons.
- One Ukrainian company makes fake M777 155mm howitzers for under $1000, using sewer pipes.
- It wants Russia to waste expensive missiles and drones targeting cheap decoys, Metinvest told CNN.
Ukraine is making fake versions of its weapons, including replicas of M777 155mm howitzers made for less than $1000, with the aim of getting Russia to waste expensive weaponry targeting them.
The goal, steel and mining company Metinvest told CNN, is to save the lives of Ukrainians while also getting Russia to waste its own drones, shells, and missiles.
"War is expensive and we need the Russians to spend money using drones and missiles to destroy our decoys," a company spokesperson told CNN.
Metinvest makes decoys of advanced Western military technology that Ukraine is getting from its allies, with the fakes including M777 155mm howitzers, which cost millions of dollars each for the real ones.
The company's versions cost less than $1000, and are made from old sewer pipes.
Hundreds of the fake weapons made by Metinvest have been targeted by Russia, CNN reported.
The effort is part of a wider strategy used by Ukraine to try to trick Russian forces, which has also included decoy rocket launchers made out of wood.
Many of Metinvest's fakes are made in part out of plywood, with the company seeking to find the right balance between the cheap material and more expensive metals, but which can still fool heat-seeking weaponry, CNN reported.
Metinvest measures its success by how long the fakes remain intact, and it reconsiders the design of any model that survives for too long, the spokesperson told CNN, with a long life suggesting they aren't believable enough.
"The sooner our decoys are destroyed, the better for us," the spokesperson said.
"If our decoy was destroyed, then we did not work in vain," the spokesperson added, saying that the military gives back the destroyed ones, which the company keeps like trophies.
Three of Metinvest's senior managers came up with the idea of the decoys at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022, The Guardian previously reported.
At the time, Ukraine was severely low on weapons compared to Russia.
One of the managers told The Guardian: "We thought if the Russians saw a lot of weapons, they might be scared to move forward, or to shell an area. It's a psychological weapon."
Russia has also been recorded using somewhat similar tactics in the conflict, including fake trenches that are actually traps.